We look for silver linings.
If there is anything good that could be said about this pandemic, it might be that the worldwide emergency brake on energy use and travel will slightly diminish the experts’ dire predictions for the inexorable rise of global warming. And that in the coming months, while billions of people remain in virtual limbo, we may take this pause to reenvision environmentally friendlier means to power our world as nations’ economies slowly but surely begin to reboot.
Here in Utah, that sense of urgency is compounded by the wake-up call this week’s tremors provided us. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to worry about ruptured gas lines, leaking fuel tanks, the resultant fires and explosions, and the loss of homes and of lives? That the very worst disruption from our solar panels and windmills going dark in a disaster would be for them to temporarily stop running.
As we wait out this pandemic and hold on tight for the earthquake’s aftershocks to fade, what better time to consider a vision for a world free of those disasters we might be able to prevent?
Gerald Elias, Salt Lake City